Qimonda is to expand its existing facility for the assembly and testing of memory ICs (back-end) in the Suzhou Industrial Park, Suzhou, China, which is located 80 km west of Shanghai. The expansion will double the factory’s capacity after the construction of a new 10,000 m2 clean room alongside the existing 10,000 m2 clean room.
Investment in construction of the new facility, including infrastructure, production equipment and IT, will amount to around €250 M over the next three years.
Construction is scheduled to start this month (March 2007), with the site ready for the installation of equipment by late 2007. The expansion will also result in a significant increase in headcount. The facility currently has about 1700 staff, which, at full capacity, is expected to rise to above 3000 employees.
Kin Wah Loh, president and CEO of Qimonda, commented, “Growth in our front-end capacities, with more than two-thirds of our DRAM bits shipped now produced on 300 mm manufacturing lines, clearly requires an increase in our back-end capacities. With the expansion in Suzhou we are now set up to further leverage our competitive advantage in 300 mm manufacturing.”
Ma Ming Long, chairman of the Suzhou Industrial Park Administrative Committee (SIPAC), also addressed his support to this expansion, saying, “Qimonda is one of the major companies in the Suzhou semiconductor industry.
It is the enterprise and industry that SIPAC fully supports and targets. We believe that with the completion of the second building, it will meet customers’ needs effectively as well as bring the company a good return of investment in the future.”
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